Dueling Banjos
by Cat of Kilkenny
Summary: After Breaking Dawn, Leah learns that sometimes the least welcome conversations are the ones we need the most. Leah/Jasper friendship.
1. Introduction

As this is my first ever fan fiction, I thought I'd include a short introduction.

I've always been content with reading, not writing. A fic I read by Minisinoo called "Cowboys and Indians" changed that. It's really, really a wonderful piece of writing and I encourage everyone to read it. Don't believe me? Stop reading my story. Seriously, right now. Go read hers.

Ah, back so soon? I'll finish my schpiel, then. Though I know Stephenie Meyer said Leah was happy after Breaking Dawn, I couldn't see her getting there without some sort of internal struggle. How could someone who had been through so much simply be…happy? After "Cowboys and Indians," I started thinking that Jasper, another one of my favorite characters, could logically play a part in Leah's story.

I'm not so great with romance, so please don't expect any. Believe me, you wouldn't want to read it! This is going to be my attempt to explain the growth of a friendship I think could be possible, a friendship between polar opposites who are nonetheless kindred spirits.

Being new to this, any comments at all would be really welcome. I mean it. If you hate my story, tell me! (Please tell me why as well). If there's something you'd like these two to talk about in their, erm, "therapy sessions" (you'll see), let me know.

Thanks for reading- now let's begin.


	2. We Knew She'd Do It

For the first time she could remember, Leah Clearwater did not feel free as she ran.

True, she had run patrols. She had run where she had been bidden, but there was always a sort of _freedom_ to it. Yes, the wind in her hair, the stray leaves tickling her face…all that jazz.

Now, dodging the trees nimbly as she flew past them in her wolf form, she felt as if weights and more weights were slowing her.

Her mother's disappointed face.

Seth's pity.

The looks on the faces of her former brothers, all of which were variations of "knew she'd do it." In a way, she did not blame them. She did doubt, however, that the way it happened was what they'd predicted.

That morning, Leah had shimmied into a hideous lavender chiffon dress she would never wear again. She had seen her mother's smile of approval reflected in the bathroom mirror as she carefully applied a layer of mascara, wondering the entire while if the contents of the tube weren't stale. When her mother left, Leah fingered a strand of her short hair and took a moment to imagine how it looked when it had been long. Could she have curled it? She had never tried.

As she had broken the heels off her nicest sandals in one of her "fits," she had carefully laced her mother's sandals onto her callused feet. Her mother had worn these same shoes on her wedding day, a day Leah couldn't even begin to place in her understanding of time.

She was quiet during the entire ceremony and grabbed Seth's hand only once. She only was able to take hold of his thumb and squeeze before he made a sound of protest and she was forced to retreat, holding her own shaking hand in her lap.

As a whole, things were going well. She had told Emily that she was not quite ready to be a bridesmaid and Emily understood. Leah didn't look at the bride or the groom, but rather focused on the glint of Billy Black's watch as his hand rested on the arm of his wheelchair. The ceremony itself passed without incident, and the happy couple dashed off to get ready for the reception. Leah did not need to think as she rose from her seat, but rather followed the person in front of her. This is what she did so well, wasn't it?

Somehow, Leah found herself at the clearing overlooking the beach with practically the rest of the reservation, still in her ridiculous dress and her mother's shoes. She toasted people mechanically, smiled a smile people truly felt was genuine, and laughed when she thought the time called for it. She twirled about the dance floor that had been built for the occasion. She danced one dance with Embry and once with Jacob, who had the presence of mind _not_ to invite his demon spawn love to this… blessed event.

Jake had been trying to cheer her up somehow, but all Leah could see was how the first drops of drizzle were forming glistening, jewel-like chains on the lace of Emily's dress. Emily was talking to all her well-wishers, occasionally glancing at Leah with an expression Leah couldn't completely place. Leah excused herself, nodded to Quil as she passed by him, and grabbed a champagne flute as tightly as she could without causing it to shatter.

Then it happened.

People thought she would run when Emily hugged her or if Sam asked her to dance. (He hadn't. In fact, he had acted as if he would prefer to leave Leah be, and that was how she liked it.)They thought it would happen when she found out Emily was hoping to name her first daughter Leah. Some thought she would interrupt the vows, run up the aisle, and tackle the bride.

People didn't understand her.

As Leah held her champagne and tried to raise it to her mouth, Sam swung by her on his way to Emily and brushed Leah's shoulder. The champagne flute fell to the ground. Sam kept walking.

"Honey, we should probably be moving this indoors," Sam called to Emily.

Sam must have caught a glimpse of Emily's stricken face, so he turned. He looked down at the champagne flute on the ground, and then he briefly raised his eyes to look at Leah's face.

"Oh. I'm so sorry."

And he was on his way.

Leah looked at the shining glass below her feet. _Oh. Sorry._ She looked at Emily, she looked at Jacob, she looked at Seth. _He was so sorry._

Seth knew, but it was too late.

The girl that once was Leah Clearwater was running faster than most could ever run, frantically removing her shoes with shaking hands and hurling them behind her. She vaguely heard her brother and Jacob calling her name and caught a glimpse of all the faces, so many faces --before her body gave another shudder and she lurched into the woods, exploding into a gray wolf just as she reached the cover of the trees.

Her mother's shoes lay in the dirt, mud slowly trickling down their sides as the rain began to pour.


	3. Flying

Leah ran and ran, but it seemed like she was going in circles. At one point, she came dangerously close to the leeches' mausoleum, a move she must have made out of sheer habit, and swerved. Perhaps the rain had masked the sickly scent or she would have known to turn sooner, even if she were paying no attention to her course at all. No, she wouldn't force herself to drink in that chemical smell without any good reason. No patrols today, she thought.

Suddenly, however, all her thoughts were not her own.

_LEAH! Where are you?_ Seth must have phased and was calling her.

_Leah._ Jacob's voice, unusually quiet. So he was ready to pity her too?

_Leah, I know how you feel. Believe me. If you need to keep running, do it, _Jacob's voice said.

Leah felt too numb to think back her thanks, but she did briefly register Seth's mental cry of protest. She briefly allowed herself to think of how she'd miss her baby brother, and she briefly thought of her mother's wedding shoes. Briefly.

Jacob must have convinced Seth to phase back without Leah having noticed, because her mind was clear once more. She was alone. Blissfully, merrily alone.

Well, perhaps not.

Running without rhyme or reason, Leah tried to think of a plan. Would she run north as Jacob had? She could run south until she found a nice, warm, sparsely populated beach. She would buy a beach chair and the largest jug of rum she could find, soaking up the sun in her own little paradise...That is, if she had any money.

Perhaps not.

Waves of anger rocked her body, but she kept running. How could she have been so stupid to leave without taking a single thing with her? She had nothing at all, and she couldn't bring herself to go back to her house and pick up supplies.

Despite the joy Leah usually derived from running, she could never dream of living as a wolf for months on end. Guarding the leeches had been bad enough. Leah liked being human, having a bed to sleep in, good food to eat, books to read, and family to talk to. Family.

Maybe thinking about the situation wasn't the best plan.

I am a wolf, a force of nature, she thought. Now was the time to stop thinking, the time to let instincts be her guide. In fact, she could probably keep running with her eyes closed and find her way. Her body, not her mind, would lead her to her destiny.

Closing her eyes, Leah picked up the pace. She felt the slowing of the rain even as the wind about her face strengthened and she heard the last raindrops hit the forest floor. If she concentrated enough, she fancied that she could hear the shaking of leaves as they struggled to unload the water that clung to them. They were letting go just as she was, and she was flying.

At least, she was flying until she crashed headfirst into a tree.

Whimpering in pain, covered in a heavy blanket of needles that had fallen during the impact, and curled up in a mass of tangled legs and tail, Leah let loose a stream of curses. She cursed the tree, first of all. Damn, godforsaken piece of shit tree! What was it doing there? Did it magically sprout out of the ground like some motherfucking fairy tale beanstalk just to spite her? Stupid tree!

She cursed her destroyed lavender dress next. Why had she listened to her mother and bought it? Where had her mind been when she had shelled out…however much the awful thing had cost…

She cursed the wedding and whoever had planned it. Seriously, people, did no one think of checking a weather report? Let's move this inside. Really now?

Cursing _him_ was of no use.

But the leeches! If they hadn't moved back, she would never be a wolf. Her father, he would never be-

Leah couldn't figure out when she had turned back into a girl, but she didn't move. Naked and covered in needles, curled up at the base of the tree, Leah closed her eyes and tried once more not to think of anything at all.

She was studiously trying not to focus on the stinging of the needles nestled in the bend of her leg when she first smelled that chemically sweet smell she could so easily identify. To top things off, a bloodsucker was coming. Her first instinct was to phase back to her wolf form and either take off or get on guard. Another, tired, cynical voice told her to remain exactly as she was. Whatever would come, would come.

The second voice won out, so Leah found herself still curled up and facing the tree when she heard footsteps rapidly approaching. She heard the footsteps stop and tried to keep her breaths even. She would not show fear. She would remain calm. She would try to avoid taking any breaths at all, as the smell was truly revolting. She would _not_ move.

"Leah Clearwater?"

The abnormal, musical voice was vaguely familiar, but not one she could place. Almost against her will, Leah turned her neck at an impossible angle so she could get a glimpse of the leech that had interrupted whatever it was that she was doing.

Well la-dee-da and fiddle-dee-dee. Colonel Freaking Sanders had come to call.


	4. Damn Leeches

Glaring at the leech with the best stink eye she could muster, Leah tried to think of what she ought to do. Phase back and RUN, part of her urged. This is the dangerous one; the one Sam would never ask you to fight. Part of her was telling her to phase and run directly at the bastard just because no one would have thought she would dare. Part of her just wanted to keep lying at the base of her stupid tree and just let the thing do as he saw fit. Maybe he would just leave her in peace. Maybe he'd kill her. Maybe he'd just make a decision for her.

Trust a leech to do exactly what you didn't expect them to do. Rather than getting the point and getting things over with or getting gone, the bloodsucker leaned against a tree a distance from hers and watched her. After what seemed like an hour, especially since Leah was still unnaturally twisted and unwilling to be the first to break, he broke the silence.

"Pardon my curiosity, but what are you doing?" He was still too far away for her to see his face clearly, but she could make out the smirk in his voice. Great. He found her amusing.

"I am studying the root system of this tree here. It is immensely interesting. I'd encourage you to try it sometime, bloodsucker."

"You are naked."

Leah let out a growl that was decidedly inhuman. "And here I was thinking that leeches had shit for brains."

"Technically they do have brains, but they're usually referred to as 'ganglia,'" he replied.

That was enough to set her off.

"Is smartassery a side-effect of being turned into one of you freaks, huh? You're the one who rapes emotions while dear old Eddie can jump your mind, but being an asshole comes standard, does it? Package deal?" She took a breath and noticed that he had neither moved nor interrupted her.

" Do you really have nothing better to do than just stand there? I'm really not in the mood to deal with you and all your crap."

"I was hunting," came the reply. There was a slight pause before he spoke again, his voice losing some of its amused lilt. "I was a couple of miles away and heard what sounded like an animal in pain."

Though her neck was beginning to complain, Leah tried to squint to see his face. "I never knew bloodsuckers cared about the little woodland creatures. I thought you all just ate them."

The silence seemed to echo through the forest. Thankfully, the wind had stopped so his scent wasn't being forced into her face. Her senses no longer under assault, Leah was able to think. Then it hit her. Oh.

"You _were_ planning to come eat me. Put me out of my misery, as it were."

She didn't think he could do it, but from however far he was he was still able to send her one of his freaky waves of calm. He had to be overdoing it, she thought, because she felt like she was in great danger of falling into a stupor and forgetting her own name unless she stopped him.

"Will you stop that?!" she shrieked. Very snappy, Leah.

"I was just trying to put you at ease," came his voice. "I have no intention of feeding on you. You're not entirely an animal, and you smell. Besides, I've eaten aplenty."

She didn't honor that with a retort, but rather continued to watch him. If only she could just turn her back on him and be done…

"But you're still in pain."

"You pain me! My neck hurts from having to fucking keep an eye on you!"

"I wasn't talking about your neck."

Before she could stop herself, Leah spit out something she had never meant to advertise. "I ran into this tree. My head hurts too."

"Not that either." He moved forward one tree closer to Leah and gracefully sank down to sit at its base, his back leaning against its trunk. She could see his face now, though he was still far away, but his expression was unreadable. His eyes were glowing bright yellow. His hair, normally a sort of honey color, looked darker than usual, most likely because it was still wet from the rain. He looked less human to her than ever.

"I heard tell there was a wedding today," he said.

For the first time ever, Leah Clearwater turned her back on a vampire.

It was that or a recitation of the seven words you can never say on television.


	5. Plucking the First String

_Author's Note: Thank you so much to the people who gave me my first-ever reviews! You don't know how excited I was to read them. I'd also like to do a shameless plug for dyingimmortal, whose lovely "Diamond in the Rough" is also a Jasper/Leah friendship fic inspired by…you guessed it. Thanks again, and if you have any suggestions, please leave a review! I love hearing from people._

_Disclaimer: All characters herein are the property of Stephenie Meyer. I don't own anything beyond the crazy situations I put them in._

The sun had set, the forest was dark, and Leah hadn't moved. Neither had he.

Later on, Leah would claim that he'd sent some tendrils of impulsiveness her way and that was why she spoke. "That's the only reason I opened my mouth, I swear!" Later on, both would know that this had not been the case. Later on.

"If you're waiting for me to talk to you, you're going to be disappointed," Leah grumbled, talking to the tree she was still facing more than to the vampire she knew was still somewhere behind her.

"You just did talk to me," he said.

"Fuck you!"

"No thank you, I'm happily married."

Leah raised her hands, which had been gripping her shoulders as she lay on the ground, and tightly clapped them over her ears. While ignoring him for ages hadn't made him go away, she didn't want to do anything to encourage him to speak. She didn't want to think about talking to him either, so she tried to focus on something other than the tree, which had become boring by this point. What was that song that Seth used to sing when he wanted her to get out of the bathroom in the mornings? It would never end, and she used to like to stay in the bathroom doing absolutely nothing just to see how long he'd go. First he'd yell it, completely off-key. Then he'd slowly lose the tempo- and his voice- in the process. Oh yes. Ninety-nine bottles of pop on the wall.

"Look, dog, Alice told me that my future disappeared this afternoon. She said it disappeared until tomorrow afternoon, as a matter of fact. I didn't really think about it too much at the time, but now it all makes sense. As it's settled that I'm going to be around you until sometime tomorrow, we might as well make the most of it."

_Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of pop on the wall._

"I know you don't want to talk to me."

_98 bottles of pop on the wall, 98 bottles of pop_…

"I don't particularly want to talk to you, either."

Really? Leah was tempted to tell him that she was flattered, but held back. _Take one down, pass it around, 97 bottles of pop on the wall_.

"But it's fated to be, you see. I have no intention of seeking out some other wolf if I've already found you. It's this or I go home and watch Edward read selections from _Persuasion_ to Bella. They were feeling romantic this morning and my hints to go to the cottage didn't make it through to them."

Leah snickered. She wouldn't want to watch the Privacy Invader read Austen to I'm –Better-Than-You- Bella either. The only thing worse would be them both watching "The Notebook." And quoting it. Now that would be nauseating. _97 bottles of pop on the wall, 97 bottles of pop…_

"How could a wolf run into a tree, by the way? Not that I'd put it past you in particular, as you are lying on the floor of a forest, in the dark, naked as a jaybird. But still, how did you do it? Did it take extra concentration?"

"I wasn't concentrating on running, dumbass. I closed my eyes and was trying to separate mind from body." Dammit. The word vomit just had to come out. She'd only gone through two bottles of pop. Leah cringed. Did she dare turn around to see his reaction? Yes, she dared. She was a masochist.

Sure enough, there was a look of triumph on the bloodsucker's face. He also looked strangely…happy. Oddly enough, it was also slightly contagious. Leah had absolutely no reason to feel happy herself, so why did she feel slightly happy for the first time that day? Maybe emotion rape was useful. Would he? No, she wouldn't stoop that low. Would she?

"So did you succeed? Did you find that the tree didn't exist if you didn't directly perceive it as existing?"

Leah snorted. So he'd play that game. "Are you going to try to give me a philosophy lesson, bloodsucker? I know you've been to Cornell. Jacob told me. Next you'll argue that because God sees everything I have no right to believe that if I can't see the tree it won't be there, because the fucking Almighty says it is. Not that I even know if you freaks believe in one God, or many gods, or anything at all. You're messing with George Berkeley. Want to talk about the separation between soul and body too? I'm pretty good with Descartes. Or Plato. Bring it."

She didn't think the raising of the bloodsucker's eyebrow would give her as much enjoyment as it did. A camera to capture the moment would have been nice.

"You read philosophy?"

"No shit. Some of it's good stuff. What, Wonderbread, think Injuns can only read comics? "

"Favorite philosopher?"

"David Hume."

Once again, the blond eyebrow went up. He got up from his position in a flash, so quickly that Leah didn't have time to do anything else but flinch, and moved one tree closer to hers. Sitting back down with the grace of some demure little debutante, he nodded. "Any reason why you like Hume?"

"'A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.'"

"I don't mean to offend, but you never have struck me as either a hopeful or joyful person. I would know."

"It was one of my dad's favorite quotes. And don't worry, you offend me by existing."

The bloodsucker's response was to let loose a small chuckle and tuck a blond curl behind his ear. He leaned against his tree and continued to watch her as if he were watching his faithful dog sleep on the hearth in front of a roaring fire. Asshole.

"At this point, you know, it would make sense for you to say something about how you feel sorry for my loss. I mentioned my dead dad. Just trying to give you a helpful tip on how to play human."

"I didn't know your father, and I don't really know why I should say sorry when you're fishing for it. It wouldn't be for him, and it wouldn't even be for you. Using death as a way to get attention is more like what I would expect from your kind. A minute ago you almost convinced me otherwise."

Leah nearly phased just then, she shook so violently. As she shook on the ground, the needles beneath her stung into her exposed skin and brought her back down. Leah manufactured her own calm, and then looked the bloodsucker in the eye. "Don't you dare tell me how I feel about death. You have no right. Just because death isn't ever going to be a part of you doesn't mean you can..you can…"

The look on his face was so feral that it silenced her. He really did look like some fucking demon straight out of hell or one of Old Quil's stories. His eyes were wide and glowing even more than before, and his mouth was in a mockery of a smile. Who knew smiles could look so unfriendly?

"You don't know a thing, dog. Not a thing about death. Trust me. I know what death is." Leah sputtered, undeterred by his expression, and was about to reply when his face smoothed and he cut her off. "Do you plan on putting some clothes on?"

Leah looked at him as if he were insane. He probably was, wasn't he?

"I think it's clear I don't have any clothes."

"If I give you an article of clothing, would you put it on?"

"Hell no."

"It would let you walk somewhere out of this forest and give you the option of not having to keep to your wolf form. Unless you like being buck naked. Or maybe you just like having to lie on the ground like that."

He really did know how to push buttons well, didn't he.

"I can give you my turtleneck. It's long enough to cover you."

"It'll smell like you."

"Definitely."

"That's disgusting." Leah looked at the bloodsucker and sized up his forest-green turtleneck. He had it tucked in and she had half a mind to tell him that human men just don't _do_ that anymore, but she kept quiet. Yes, it could be long enough. He was slightly taller than her…

"I have a proposition," Leah said. "Take off the sweater and rub it long and hard against your tree. Then come put it in halfway between you and me, back off, and turn around. I'll come pick it up. It'll be like that movie where Bond is in North Korea and stuff."

"Rub this against a tree? Bond in North Korea?"

"Don't you watch movies at all? You know when they do hostage tradeoffs?"

"I only watch _good_ movies."

"Like Gone with the Wind?" Leah snorted. "Terms suit you?"

The bloodsucker got up and pulled off his turtleneck in reply. The navy blue t-shirt he wore underneath it was short-sleeved, but she doubted he'd feel the cold. Grimacing, he turned and gingerly rubbed the turtleneck against his tree. "This isn't going to erase my smell. I think you're just trying to make me look like an idiot."

"Maybe yes, maybe no, bloodsucker. Now come put it down."

He walked forward at an unnaturally slow pace, smirking at her the entire time. He folded the turtleneck and threw it down and then backed away to his tree, still watching her.

"Turn around."

"No."

"Do it!" she screeched. A bird somewhere above them flew out of its perch in protest. Still smirking, he turned at a glacial pace and faced his tree.

As fast as her legs could carry her, Leah threw herself off the ground, grabbed the sweater, dashed back to her tree, and pulled it over her head. It reached just below the middle of her thighs. A mini dress. Sexy. Well, better than nothing.

"Done yet?" he asked.

"Nope," Leah yelled. She was, in fact, but she slightly enjoyed not being the one whose back was turned. Alright, she milked the moment for all it was worth.

"This thing still reeks," she called. "You can turn around now."

He did, sizing her up as she watched him. She probably looked like shit, she knew, but the turtleneck was soft. Cashmere, probably, knowing his kind. Beyond the awful smell, she liked it. Not that she'd tell him.

Leah slowly sat down, folding her legs beneath her, and leaned back against her tree. "So, is it my turn to ask annoying questions?"


	6. A Chord

_Author's Note: Sorry to put one of these again, but I'd first like to warn you that this one is a bit of a doozy as I couldn't find a place to stop. I'd also like to mention that a calculation found in this chapter is based on some information I got from Midnight Sun and dates from the Twilight Lexicon. In MS, Edward mentions that the Cullens are all uncomfortable around humans after two weeks without hunting, but Jasper is truly suffering. That's all, and thanks again to all those who reviewed! Y'all make my day._

Smiling ever so slightly, the ends of his full bottom lip curling upwards, the vampire sitting across from her nodded. Game on, Leah thought. Screwing her face up into a smile she thought resembled those girls in toothpaste commercials, Leah tilted her head to one side and began.

"What," she said with great theatricality and purpose, "what is your favorite color?"

One blond eyebrow twitched slightly as if it was aching to go up. Leah counted that as a hit.

"The way you said that made you sound almost exactly like Emmett when he's in one of his more interesting moods. There's a film with a bridge keeper who says that just the way you did."

"Don't skirt the question," Leah playfully snapped. "I answered your questions, you answer mine."

Leah saw him pull another curl behind his ear and identified it as a nervous tic. This was fun.

"It's yellow."

_WHAT?_ Leah narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "Are you lying? I'd have guessed black. You know, with all your emo-ness and shit. Plus you seem to have a thing for death." She stopped, but he didn't give her any explanations. He didn't even touch his damn hair. "Ok, fine, I'll ask this next: Why yellow?"

"It was the color of Alice's dress when I first met her, and it's…happy." He paused and looked Leah straight in the eye. "Yellow is innocent. I have fond memories of it."

If she weren't so turned off by the idea of love at this particular time, Leah thought she might have found his response slightly cute. She wondered if anyone would ever remember what she had worn when she met them. The color of the psychic freak's dress, huh? On that note…

"How much taller are you than her?"

He frowned. "Odd question. Almost a foot and a half."

Leah gave him a mischievous look and said, in the dirtiest tone she could muster: "So, do you two have…problems? Experience any, you know…difficulties?"

The growl coming from deep inside his chest was clearly audible from Leah's seat. Oh, that was a good one. Definite hit.

"Right, I'll move on."

"You'd better."

"I said I'd move on! Fine then, favorite movies? You didn't seem to like the Bond with the badass invisible car. Have you been to a theater and liked something lately?"

"That was two questions."

"Get over it, Cap'n Crunch."

"You do know you're demoting me? I was a major."

Leah chuckled. This was really pretty funny. "Read Catch 22 ever?"

"Of course. Major Major. Want your two questions answered?"

"'Course."

"Question 1: Not so sure. I've got so many. Can I get back to you on this one? I have to say, however, that Hitchcock's great, but I don't see why humans found his work frightening. Do you know that one recent movie Emmett wanted to see, the one with the little girl with black hair climbing out of a well? Silly. Only Rosalie thought that one was scary at all." He adjusted the position of his back against the tree, reclining a bit more. "And if you must know, I didn't much care for Gone with the Wind. History told by the victors, you know? As for your second question, I don't go to theaters."

"You don't go to movie theaters?"

The smile he gave her was rueful. "Lots of people packed closely together, not paying attention to their surroundings. The cover of darkness, the smell of so many warm bodies in one room. How do you think I'd take it?"

She blinked. Every time she'd been in a movie theater she'd never really noticed the people next to her unless they were loud or unless they happened to be Sam, who never really seemed to want to pay attention to the movie…The memory hit her with a pang, and she recoiled from it. Vampirism as claustrophobia, she thought?

"So you have never been on a plane either, then? Or do you all hide some supersonic jet or something under your crypt?"

"I have never been on an airplane."

"Never?"

"Never."

Leah impulsively got up from her tree and paced back and forth. The first time she had been on an airplane was when her father had randomly decided that he needed to make sure his kids saw Disneyland. He'd saved up to do something special, he'd said, and wasn't Disneyland a necessary childhood experience? They'd flown down to California and Leah had fought Seth for possession of the window the entire time. She'd won, but relented and let him have the window seat for just a short while when he'd actually cried. Disneyland itself hadn't been as wonderful as she'd hoped, and she distinctly remembered kicking a little boy in the shin when he'd made fun of her for being "Mexican." But flying, flying! She frowned. He was watching her pace.

"Being a vampire does let me leave the ground pretty easily, though. It just takes a jump," he said.

"That's not the same as flying. You've never been hurtling through the air more than just a moment, high above the ground, looking down? Watching the earth move beneath you without touching it, wanting to run your fingers through the ground to see if it would feel the same even if it looked so different?" Leah stopped pacing, moved forward, and sat down against a new tree slightly closer to him. "Never?"

Jasper's expression was unreadable. "No, never." He looked at her with what looked like a wistful expression before he seemed to give her a quick, short nod. "Done with questions?"

"Not nearly," Leah replied, as she brought her mind out of the clouds. "You said Alice told you that you'd be here, right? Like, you think you have to stay here and talk to me because she's seen you disappear and this is the most convenient explanation for it. Jake's told me all about you guys even when I don't want to hear it, and he's said that Alice told him you two are together because she saw you'd be."

"Mmm?"

"I mean, she saw you together, so you just took that to be it and were together? Where's the free will here, Jasper?" He was smiling broadly then and she stopped and gave him a glare. "What're you so happy about?"

"Oh nothing, please continue. This is interesting."

"You don't get it, do you?" Leah grumbled. "Did you feel like you were supposed to fall in love with her because she saw you would? Do you feel like you _have_ to do things because it's fated to be? Don't you ever even _try_ to fight it?"

"This is about imprinting, isn't it?"

"No!" Leah growled. "Stop it! I just want to know. Do you believe you can make choices and have them hold, or are you always following orders? Orders here, orders there? Life isn't the fucking army!"

"So in essence you're complaining about people being soldiers of fate?"

Leah pulled at the sleeves of her turtleneck before she realized that his stench was being wafted more strongly towards her nose with each pull. Sighing in annoyance, she looked at him. "No. Not exactly. But sortof. Do you have free will? Or is Alice's word law, and by Alice I mean…fate?"

"First of all, Alice is not fate. Her visions change at the last minute if your mind changes, so if I had chosen to turn tail and run like lightning the first time I saw her, things would have been different. But some things…some things I like to think of as dust storms. Running like the wind won't get you away from them because they're moving with the wind, and you're running right along with them. They'll catch up with you some day. Some things are meant to be, and sometimes you'll find that what was chasing you wasn't sand after all. Alice and I, for example. Even this odd…interaction I'm having with you. But if…if you want to fight them, maybe…" he looked at Leah with a half smile and inclined his head. "Some things are worth fighting. Maybe you can outrun the storm if you…fly. Fly above it."

She blinked. She wanted to argue. She felt tired. Emily and Sam, a dust storm? Jake and the demon baby? This topic wasn't finished. Not at all. But how to argue?

"Now are you done?"

"Oh, I have one more." Leah had been saving this one ever since she first set eyes on him and heard of what he was, where he had been, and what he had seen. It gnawed at her for ages and ages, but she hesitated to ask him. She felt comfortable enough to do it now. Dust storms of fate be damned.

Jasper chuckled. "Sure you do."

She swallowed and smoothed her face into rock, just as she'd seen him do. Breathe evenly, no emotion. You wanted to know, you ask, Leah thought.

"How many living, breathing _human beings_ have you killed?"

There are some silences in this world that are comfortable. There are some that are uncomfortable. Then others seem like they're just bottomless, so empty and deep that you don't really know if you're comfortable, uncomfortable, or anything at all. This was one of the last kind, Leah thought.

"Actually, I thought you'd ask this question. Did you know, no one ever has? I've been waiting to tell someone, but no one- " He broke off. "Do you really, truly want to know?"

Leah looked closely at him, or as best she could in the dark without wolf vision. He had curled into himself. His entire body was tense, his arms gripping each other and his legs folded up, yet digging into the ground. And he looked human, ever so human. He couldn't have been much older than her when he'd died, could he? She wanted to know.

"Yes."

"Two thousand, nine hundred and seven."

She didn't move.

The gleam in Jasper's eyes was maniacal, and the grip he had on his arms looked as if he might tear them off. The words started coming out of him with the steadiness of the clicking of a secretary's typewriter. Leah wasn't sure she wanted to hear him.

"This isn't an exact number, but more of an estimate, you see. I was turned in 1863 and stayed with my first…situation…until around 1885. After that, I managed to rein myself in as much as I could, but I still had to feed once every two weeks if I didn't want to endanger more people than I needed to. You don't understand, do you? I had to make a choice! Kill someone sick, or old, or alone once every two weeks, or kill an entire family out for a walk when I couldn't hold it anymore. The feelings off them were so different. With a normal young woman charmed into getting close to me, the last thing she'd feel was utter terror and sometimes regret. These other people…Resignation didn't hurt me quite as badly." He stopped, obviously remembering some moments in the past that Leah hoped she would never hear about.

"I met Alice in 1948 and have had five…mistakes… since then. So, my calculations come to this: one human a week 'till '85 comes out to… 1,144. Twenty-two years of fifty-two deaths a year. Then I brought it down to twenty-six people each year and kept that up for sixty-three years as I tried to … find myself. That's another 1,638. Add the five and another thirty or so for a safe margin of error, as the times I starved myself mostly make up for the times I truly became a monster, and you've got 2,907. I have killed 2,907 people. Humans, that is. I killed dozens of newborns a day for many years, so that must bring up my body count quite substantially."

Leah got up from her seat with a jerk and backed away from him. Jasper didn't look surprised. She walked back and forth clutching her stomach, trying not to bring up the dry granola she'd eaten for breakfast. He'd killed so many people. This…person…sitting across from her was a mass murderer. He obviously felt remorse, but the people…so many people. There had to be a way to make this go away. She didn't want to feel pity for a monster. She didn't want to keep talking to a monster.

"That's less than on September 11th. And you did it for over a hundred years. Or you…you'd know about Antietam, right? Like, ten times as many if high school history class was right. Just one battle in that damn war you were in, right?"

"I killed many more than at Wounded Knee, Leah." He gave her a rueful smile, but she didn't acknowledge it. "And you're forgetting: I am one man."

Doubled over and still clutching her stomach, Leah noticed he had calmed down. He looked like a rock again. How could he?

"I wish I didn't ask you," she practically bawled.

"I'm glad you did."

She peered at him through half-closed eyes, trying to think about airplane windows.

Jasper got up and took a step closer to her, his arms held lax by his sides and his palms facing her. She put one foot behind her, but didn't actually take the step back. "Please, I understand," he said. "Numbers help picture things a bit, don't they? It's a number I know very well, and I'm sorry if I went about things the wrong way. If you need to leave, I won't follow."

"No," Leah said quickly, straightening as best she could. "I'm not done with my questions."

This time, Leah didn't take note of his raised eyebrow. No, she was beyond thinking of that now.

"Can you really make a person feel anything at all? Can you make _me_ feel anything…anything I'd want to feel?"


	7. Melody Without a Key

_Author's Note: After this, I've got only two chapters left and I'm pretty sure they'll be a tad shorter. If you've got anything you really want me to include, let me know now! And yes, I will try to explain where the title came from. As always, reviewers: you are made of awesome._

Whatever Jasper had been expecting, the look on his face convinced her that this was not it. He was the one to take a step back, not her, and he turned his back to her.

"No, Leah," he mumbled.

"No? No? You tell me you killed almost three thousand people and you won't do something for me? Huh? Or can't you? You can't actually make me feel anything, can you?" Leah was furious, and her fury was helping her tongue move far ahead of her brain. She knew he could do quite a lot of things, not the least of which would be to rip her head off with his teeth. She hoped she didn't upset him too much, but she needed this. It was worth a shot.

Jasper turned his head ever so slightly so he could watch her with his peripheral vision but still keep his back turned to her. His fists were clenched. Maybe her fury was contagious. "I can make you feel anything, anything at all. That is, if I've ever felt it."

"Show me."

"Any emotion you want in particular?" He sounded old and tired now, and she couldn't remember why she had thought his age must have been close to hers. Though his baritone voice didn't shake or waver at all, somehow it gave her the feeling of someone truly old. Unsettling.

"Do a test run first, will you? I'll tell you what I want when we know you can actually do it. And no overkill like earlier, right? No making me feel like I'm about to pass out." Leah raised her chin and spread her feet further apart. She looked as if she was about to face a particularly strong gust of wind. Do it, she thought. Do it.

Jasper turned so he wasn't completely facing her but was still able to make good eye contact. He tucked one hand between his wide leather belt and his jeans, and he gave her another one of those lightning fast nods. The wind had picked up again and all the curls he'd tucked behind his ear had made a bid for freedom and were whipping around his face.

That's when she felt it. Was she aging? Leah looked at her hands, trying to keep calm. Her legs shook. This wasn't feeling tired, this was utter exhaustion. Could she still stand straight? "Overkill! I told you, no passing out! Pick another," she screamed at him over the wind. Abruptly, she felt as strong as ever.

It didn't last long. All of a sudden, all Leah could see was her mother's shoes covered in mud. She saw Emily's face as she screamed profanities at her and assured her that she and Sam would make a perfect couple. She saw tears shining on Seth's childlike, chubby cheeks on the plane to Disneyland. Breaths were hard to take and she felt like hanging her head and shrinking. Though she was still in the middle of a dark forest wearing nothing but a turtleneck sweater, she could have sworn that a part of her was watching her father hit the floor as she first started to phase. Was this guilt? Was this remorse? What the hell was he doing to her? "You're making me see things! You're not supposed to make me see things, you're supposed to make me feel things!"

"_You're_ making you see things. All you. I'm affecting your body, but you're the one doing things with your mind," he shot back. "Some people react that way."

Soon her fury was back, but she was positive that not all of it was her own. No, she wanted to kill him. Her entire body started shaking as it had when she couldn't control her need to phase. She wanted Jasper dead, and she wanted to make sure she did it slowly. She wanted to do it in such a way that would make it feel like all those two thousand and something people he killed were now killing him. She took a step forward, but he'd taken a step forward as well. Now she didn't have a inkling of why she'd moved. Where was she? In fact, why did she care to kill him at all? Nothing could be worth it. All she needed was to sit down and let the world pass her by.

Wait, a part of her screamed. This is not you! She pulled her feet back into her starting position and managed to lift her chin even higher and give Jasper a glare. She saw him watching her with wide eyes, and the next feeling she felt took her by surprise. Was this pride? Pride and wonder, Leah thought. He wasn't channeling those quite so strongly into her, but she thought she could identify the odd lifting feeling she got when something, or someone, surprised her for the better. "You're proud I fought that one, aren't you?" she hollered over the wind. "Keep going!"

He folded his arms and nodded at her again, narrowing his eyes. She frowned at him and wondered why he didn't just get a move on and do something. Do it already, what are you waiting for, what's with this endless delay? Was he doing anything at all? How dare he stand there just like that in his designer fucking jeans and fucking act like she's a toy to be played with. While she and her mother had to struggle to make ends meet, this asshole could buy jeans like that from who knows where. Aah, Leah's mind told her. He's trying to make you envious? Jealous?

She looked at his narrowed eyes and saw they weren't glowing as strongly as before. Was he getting hungry again? Could she trust him not to attack her? Lord above, what was she doing here along with a vampire and not in wolf form? She started taking a step back and felt her palms begin to sweat. Then again, it was better than being alone. He shoulders hunched a little. Poor Seth, back home with no big sister to watch over him…

"God fucking dammit, you sonofabitch! Can't you have any _positive_ emotions to throw at me?" Leah screamed at him as the first drops of a new bout of rain hit her nose. His amusement hit her very quickly, but before she could laugh he'd moved on. He was concentrating very hard on something and Leah couldn't feel a thing yet. "Hey Cap'n, losing your touch?" she called.

His smile was warm, but also a little sly. He was surely up to something. What could it be? She looked at him closely, the crescent of moon conveniently illuminating his face. Concentration wasn't an emotion, was it? But my, how his jawline looked when he concentrated. It was so smooth. Her fingers twitched, aching to run over it. Some rain drops were running down his nose as well and Leah had the strange urge to walk up to him and lick them off. Was she salivating? Gross. What--?

Oh no he didn't. "You stop that now!" Leah cried. She saw his shoulders shake with laughter and wondered how broad they were. Not like Sam, but who knows? Lanky guys have got to have something going for them too. What would he look like without that stupid t-shirt? Leah tilted her head to the side and felt the corners of her mouth turn up. The color of his skin wasn't particularly appealing, but she could get used to chalky pale white if something made up for---

"You perverted bastard! Stop that right NOW!"

"Be glad I gave you that instead of utter and complete anguish!" he yelled back, his voice breaking with laughter. This time, Leah started laughing too. The half-assed rain that had started only moments ago had dissipated for the moment.

_Almost three thousand people,_ Leah's mind chanted at her. _Oh. I'm so sorry_. _Shattered glass._ She choked on a laugh.

"I think I'm done for now," she murmured, trusting vamp hearing. Why had she yelled before?

Jasper looked like he wanted to say something, Leah thought. His mouth kept opening and closing ever so slightly, and the smallest bit of pink tongue touched his bottom lip. If her mother were here, she'd tell him to stop looking like a fish and spit it out. Leah missed her mother.

He was only twenty feet away from her now at most, and he took another step forward and left the moonlight. A hand went back up to his curls and made to tuck one behind his ear before he dropped it.

"So?" he asked.

"Test run passed," Leah replied. Pulling at the hem of the turtleneck so it covered her a little more, she walked closer to him. The smell was atrocious. "I'm going to ask you for a favor," she continued, walking even closer.

Jasper shook his head slowly. "You have to do that yourself, Leah. Don't ask me to do it for you."

Leah stopped only five feet away from him, her nose slightly wrinkled from the stench. "Don't tell me what to wish for. It's your choice if you'll do it or not." Lifting her head high and staring him down with all the majesty she'd seen her mother use on certain special occasions, Leah smiled. "I want you to make me happy. Make me feel purely happy. Happy for me, happy for them. Happy. I want you to erase any of this stuff I've got weighing me down, can't you see? I want to fly and can't get off the ground. If you just give me a little push, a little blastoff…maybe I'll be free."

Golden eyes squeezed shut and then reluctantly fluttered open. "The minute I stop, you'll be back where you started and even worse."

"Let me be the judge of that," she whispered. "I'm not asking you to follow me everywhere and dope me up with happy. I just want a little, right here and now. Just to feel it. 'Be happy, Leah,' they all tell me. 'I'm sure you'll find happiness.' Well here _you_ are, and you can do it. I'll forget what you told me about all those people if you do this for me now."

She didn't step back when he growled.

"That was a low blow," he said. "I don't want you to forget it. _I _don't want to forget it. That number should never change, understand? I want you to remember it as it is. So I can know that someone besides me will know that two thousand, nine hundred and seven can't swell to two thousand, nine hundred and eight."

Leah ran a hand through her cropped hair and looked at him, noticing his miniscule flinch as her smell wafted his way. "Numbers, numbers, Major. Makes things easier for you, does it? Makes it easier to remember?" She sniffed the air and flinched just has he had. "I think it makes it easier for you to forget." He stiffened, and she ignored it. She began to walk around him, watching her dirty feet as they hit the ground. "You're a military man, right? It's notches on your bow, on your saddle, on your helmet. Nice and ordered, in a row. I'll bet they've told you to look at them as people, but do you really? For someone who is such a…master of emotions, do you really feel the right ones at the right time?"

He caught her unawares and managed to grab a painful grip on her arm as she passed by him. His hand was so cold that it felt like she was being burnt. His face was dangerously close to her neck, his smell overwhelming, but she wasn't afraid. "I felt every one of those people die," he growled.

Leah ignored the pain of his hand on her arm and looked into his face calmly. "Yes, I'm sure you did. Sampled their emotions when you had to, when the situation forced you to. But did you ever feel any of those people live?"

The grip on her arm disappeared and he pulled his face away from hers. Once again, he looked really young. His eyes were round, his mouth quivering slightly. Leah smiled an angelic smile at him again.

"Please. Help me, Jasper. Just this once. Help me."

His jaw twitched oddly, but he nodded. This nod was slow and looked almost like a bow. "It'll help if you stopped moving. You're distracting me."

Leah closed her eyes and tried to think of nothing at all when she first felt it. Something warm, slightly tingly deep inside her stomach. Each breath she took brought in more air. She wanted to open her eyes and look up at the trees, but she thought it might break the spell. That's what it was: a beautiful, wonderful spell. She felt the muscles on her forehead relax, all the lines and furrows smoothing. Her mouth started quirking into a smile. And then…then the memories came.

She was little as can be and having a twirling contest with her dad until she got dizzy and ran into him, knocking him over. She was rolling down a hill with Emily the first time she'd come to visit. She was looking down at her baby brother in his crib and hoping he'd have more hair.

She was twelve years old and fishing with all the guys rather than shopping with her cousins. She was holding on to her fishing pole and feeling the tug of the biggest fish that would be caught that day, the fish that her mother had named "Monstro" for the whale in Pinocchio. Seth got the honors of trying to cut the fish open and she remembered holding onto his hand after he cut it instead, telling him joke after joke while her dad made a mess as he looked for a Band-Aid.

She was thirteen and was helping Jake, Quil, and Embry paint what they decided was "war paint" onto Old Quil's face as he slept in a rocker. She kept trying to hush Seth as he tried to tell her something: turns out they were using her brother's unused face paint from that one Halloween he was certain he had to be a clown. She was fifteen and trying to memorize the legends Billy Black was telling her, word for word, inflection by inflection, not knowing that they were actually true. She was repeating the legends with all Billy's hand gestures to an enraptured Seth, sitting on top of the quilt on his bed. She was in her room brushing out her long hair. She was on the phone with her friend Anna, a friend she had lost touch with ages ago.

She was sixteen and racing Sam up a hill. Her heart beat faster.

Now this was flying, Leah thought. She wanted to jump and leave the ground to see if she wouldn't come back down. The warm tingling reached her fingers. It was marvelous.

Until it stopped.

Her breath came out in a shudder and she opened her eyes. Jasper was standing quite close to her, looking very worried. Why was he worried?

_Oh, Sam_. Leah's empty stomach felt like it was full of rocks and her arms felt heavy. She took another look at Jasper and collapsed to the ground, landing uncomfortably on her rear and folding her legs at an unnatural angle beneath her. Her eyes hurt too. Were those tears? She wanted her mother. She missed her dad.

"Sam," she whispered. "Sam."

She touched her face and brought away dark fingers. Her mascara had run. She must look pathetic. Stereotype of the ex-girlfriend. She was an utter failure.

If not for the cold, she would never have felt the feather light touch of a hand on her shoulder, a touch so light that it seemed like it had mostly been absorbed by the green sweater. For a moment she thought he might try to make her happy again and was going to ask him to leave her alone, but he didn't. He was giving her a different feeling now.

It was warm, not quite so warm as before, but comfortable. Her ears picked up sounds almost as well as they did when she was in wolf form, and her uncomfortable position didn't pain her. In fact, her muscles seemed…expectant. She was still tired, but she was ready to jump if she had to. She didn't feel her lungs revel in every breath of air, but she felt them fight to bring as much air in as they could. Her breathing slowed, her heart rate was back to normal. She wasn't flying, but she wanted to. She wanted to get up and do something. Wipe the mascara off her face, for one. Her teeth let go of the inside of her lip and she smoothed the hurt with her tongue.

Leah turned her head and looked up at Jasper through wet eyelashes. "What's this?"

Jasper chuckled and spoke in the most convincing drawl she'd ever heard: "Why Miss Clearwater, I'dve reckoned you'd know."

She shook her head tiredly and put her hand in front of her nose to get a break from his chemical smell. "I don't know. Tell me?"

He took his hand off her shoulder and kneeled in front of her, his eyes serious.

"Your father's favorite quote, Leah. That right there? That was a good dose of hope."


	8. Harmonizing

At least half an hour had passed in which the two occupants of the unremarkable break in the trees sat in what some might call "companionable silence." Leah, sitting on the ground and hugging her knees to her chest, continued to sniffle as much as she could while maintaining the fiction that she was, in fact, not crying at all. Jasper continued to look calm and peaceful when he, in fact, wanted to find some way to help her stop crying. He really didn't like watching people cry.

During this half hour, Jasper had moved back a distance not because the two of them felt any particular aversion to each other. No, he'd noticed Leah gagging. Apparently mouth-breathing while crying was unwise.

Leah herself was replaying all her past with Sam in her head, but she felt oddly detached. She kept seeing moments that ought to have made her cry and moments that, should the Mindcrawler himself be present, would make her blush furiously. None of them seemed to affect her whatsoever. It was like watching some strange movie reel, far back in a theater and blocked by the heads of all those in front of her. She wanted the movie to finish so she could get out and move on. Get a refund for her damn ticket. In time, it did. Leah looked up.

"You're always going to smell like nail polish remover meets cheap cologne, right?"

Jasper, who was admiring the sunrise, turned and looked at her. "Come again?"

"Oh you heard me, Cap'n Courageous. You fucking reek. Of _nail polish and cheap cologne._" She carefully enunciated the last five words, smirking across the ten or so feet separating them. The smirk didn't come easily, but when it did she cheered herself on inside. Yes.

He took a couple steps closer to her, his expression one of disbelief warring with amusement. "First thing you say after…that…is how I smell? Bad as I hate to do it, I must inform you that you smell like an unwashed saddle blanket that's been soaked in dirty bathwater."

Leah giggled. "Saddle blanket? You are such an old man, Cap'n. I'm a damn wolf, not a horse. Get it right!" She looked down at her dirty toes and then looked back up at him. "But you know what I forgot? You also smell like pixie sticks."

"Pixie. Sticks."

She picked at a toe. "Mmm-hmm. Pixie sticks."

He coughed out a laugh. "What the hell are pixie sticks?"

Leah lunged forward and stood in front of him, poking his chest with her finger. Ow. She brought her hand down and cradled her finger, looking up at him accusingly. "You don't mess with me, old vamp. You've _got_ to have seen a pixie stick in your many marvelous years of undead existence."

"Can't say I've had that pleasure. You going to educate me?"

Leah moved away from him with a gasp of mock horror. "The Professor seeks my humble knowledge?" He stepped forward and she stepped back, dodging the smell again. "Right. So pixie sticks are candy, see? They're colored, flavored sugar that come in teeny little tubes made out of paper. You rip open one end of the tube, put it in your mouth, and pour."

"That sounds like an idiotic waste of time."

Leah looked up to the sky, closed her eyes, and looked back at him. "That's not the _point_, moron. They're not supposed to make sense. They're supposed to be sweet and give you a sugar high. Seth ate like fifty of them on a dare and I had to tie him to the tree in front of our house. And if you're curious, you smell like the red one. Fake as hell cherry."

Jasper took one look at her. He took another. Then he put his hands on his stomach, threw his head back, and gave a roar of laughter. Leah found him laughing this hard to be thoroughly disconcerting.

"Jasper?" His chest was still heaving with laughs. "Your vampiness? Did I break you?"

He'd managed to stop and looked mildly abashed at his outburst. "I'm sorry, Leah. But you must see how strange this is for me. I'm standing here at the crack of dawn being told I smell like a fake cherry sweet by a half-naked colored girl wearing only my turtleneck."

She frowned. "Colored girl?"

Now he looked embarrassed and ashamed. "No, I'm sorry. I meant no offense. It's how things were, Leah. Native American."

When Leah started laughing, it was Jasper's turn to be mildly horrified. She was quick to offer an explanation.

"You ever seen the Disney version of Pocahontas? Shit movie, I swear. Well, I like the raccoon. Anyhow, ever seen it? If you do, there's this part where Pocahontas and John Smith are in the forest and he says something offensive as hell, as if the entire movie wasn't making her out to be some sex-goddess Earth Mother wasn't offensive but whatever. Seriously, people? We don't all _look_ like that. That's not how shit went down at all. Fuckers. Anyway, she's wearing her sexy one-shoulder minidress and is touching random rocks and shit, and they start glowing happy colors like pink and blue and hell knows what else. And she starts singing and telling John Smith that he shouldn't think of her as an ignorant savage because she can teach him how to---" Leah twirled and sang "paint with all the colors of the wind!"

Leah finished her rather clumsy twirl and looked at him. His mouth was slightly open. Fish face.

"It's us, don't you see? I'm supposed to start singing now and teaching you the ways of the wild, bringing you eagles and such to hold on your arm."

He twirled a curl around his finger and simply looked at her.

"You're really missing out on a lot, man. Airplanes. Theaters. Pixie sticks. Motherfucking Pocahontas."

At this, he nodded. "Yes, yes I am." The curl went behind his ear. "But some other things make up for what I can't do." He smiled his trademark barely-there smile.

Leah sat back down. "You can change, you know. What you can't do can change."

"I know." He half turned away from her, changing his mind at the last moment to give her a nod. "I know."

Picking at her toes again, Leah spoke to them even though her words were meant for him. "I have hope, you know. For you."

She couldn't be sure because it was so quiet, but she thought she heard him say "thank you." It made her want to say something herself.

"I still love Sam."

He came and sat in front of her. She didn't look up from her toes.

"I love him, and it hurts. It hurts so fucking much what he did to me, and it hurts even more that on the day of his wedding he barely seemed to care how hurt I was. He brushed past me and made me spill my drink and then acted like I was someone he barely knew. You should have seen it." She paused, her hand gripping her ankle. "I know it was his day and all and that I've no right to force him to feel sorry for things every waking moment, but it doesn't change the fact that he hurt me. She hurt me. And she loves me, and she'll keep on hurting me because she thinks she's trying to help me."

She looked up from her toes and met his golden eyes. "I'm broken, Cap'n. Really fucking broken. All my friends are scared of me, and I'm pretty sure my mom wishes I could be who I used to. I want to take care of my leech-loving baby brother, but I want to make a break for it and leave here. Right now. Work for a while, go to college somewhere, make something of myself, and never come back." Her traitorous eyes were filling with tears again. "And I miss my dad, and I…I killed him, being what I am. I did." She didn't pull her gaze away from his.

He leaned in closer without wrinkling his nose. "Leah, you didn't kill him. His heart did. You know that as well as I do, as well as the coroner did."

She shook her head. "I phased—"

"And his heart wasn't ready for it. Maybe he'd lived a little longer, but something else could have brought things to the same conclusion." He paused. "Your father probably misses you too."

Leah looked at him carefully, but he avoided her eyes. "Misses?" He didn't reply. "You believe in Heaven?"

He was still avoiding her eyes but hadn't pulled away. "I'm not sure, Leah. I-I'm not sure. If I do, understand, it's as a place I can never go. I like the thought of reincarnation better as it would-it might-if I ever leave this world, I could come back and have a lifetime to set…to set things right." He shook his head. "I don't know what I believe."

Leah blinked. "But- your family?"

Jasper's face was pained. "How about we talk about this some other time? You're tired."

Caught examining his face closely to find out what he was hiding, she nodded. "I am." She looked at her toes, looked at her knee, and looked at the sun. "I'm going to take a nap at some point, find some way to clean up a bit, and then I'm going to go home. As much as I want to quit this stupid place, I'm not leaving my mom, or my brother, or…who I am." She was surprised by the conviction in her voice.

He sat down right in front of her and smiled. "I thought you would."

"You don't remember your family, do you? Your not-undead family?"

"No."

"You will."

He tightened his lips and didn't argue with her. "What about college, Leah?"

Her laugh wasn't one of humor. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Where will I go?"

"Skagit Valley-"

"Is four hours away."

"Peninsula? Here in Forks?"

Leah wrinkled her nose. "Maybe."

Jasper wasn't letting up. "Online courses. I think Cornell started having them. Dartmouth."

"Money."

An eyebrow raised and Leah caught herself on the receiving end of a significant look. It bothered her.  
"Hell no, Cap'n, I'm not accepting your charity." She looked at him and sighed. "I might be able to go to Skagit or someplace else once or twice a week. After I work. Or scholarships. Or something." He wasn't blinking. "Dammit, Cap'n, I'll try. I will. Not because you or the fucking system say college is what I have to do, but because I want to. For me. I'm curious."

He nodded. "You are."

The companionable silence came back as both of them watched the sun. After those bouts of rain, it was turning out to be an unusual sunny day in Forks. Leah liked it. And then she caught a glint of something—

"Jasper?"

Completely unaware, he turned and looked at her. "Yes ma'am?"

She laughed. "Partner, you're fucking _sparkling_."

He looked at his hand and examined his arm. Rainbows of glitter or diamonds were being refracted off his skin. He didn't look surprised in the slightest and shrugged. "Yes. I am."

This round of laughter had Leah rolling on the ground, careful not to let her legs flail about due to her lack of underwear. "Sparkling—gasp---pixie stick---gasp---cowboy---wow." He watched her unconcernedly. Holding her sides, Leah came back to earth. "If you tell me this," she touched his forearm carefully with her index finger, "is the skin of a killer, I just might _die._" A second round of laughter followed.

Jasper patiently waited for her to stop, though he did look mildly offended. Leah pulled herself back into a sitting position, got up, and unceremoniously fell back to a sitting position by the smoothest tree she saw. Leaning back against it, she felt more tired than ever. "Am I ever going to…you know…talk to you again after this?"

"I don't know."

Leah closed her eyes, feeling oddly bereft.

"If you'd like," he said, "I wouldn't protest."

She smiled, her eyes still closed. "We're not done here, Cap'n. You've heard my shit, but I haven't even gotten your favorite movie yet. Not. Done." His chuckle let her know he'd heard her. "And I haven't even made you talk like a fucking cowboy yet. You just did it once. If you're going to wear a big ass belt like that, you've got to at least talk like it."

"Begging your pardon, ma'am," he drawled.

"Better. Come here?" To her ears, her voice sounded very small.

He got up, walked over to her tree, and smoothly sat down. "Yes?"

She looked at him through one half-opened eye. "You can still feel the pain there, right?"

"Yes."

"Can you feel _it_ though?"

"The hope? Yes. Clearly enough."

She turned her head into the trunk of the tree. "I wish it would stop hurting faster." His hand carefully touched her shoulder again, sending a wave of calm. "Thanks. Will you stay here while I nap?" She opened both eyes and looked at him. "I don't want to be alone." He nodded and leaned back against the same tree by her side, removing his hand and sitting just far away enough not to touch her. She closed her eyes and almost drifted away until she remembered.

"Hey Jasper?"

"Yes, Leah?"

"You stink."

"Like nail polish remover, bad cologne, and a cherry…pixie stick?"

"Yes." Without opening her eyes, she threw out an arm and waved it. "Out there I saw a clump of vanilla leaf. Get me one?" He muttered something under his breath, so she made an effort. "Please?"

She felt rather than saw him get up, and quicker than she thought possible he was back. He put three leaves in her lap. Her eyes still closed, Leah picked up the leaves and carefully balanced them on top of her nose, inhaled, leaned back, and sighed. "Much better."

Leah wasn't sure how much time had passed or if she was asleep, but she thought she heard him speaking. She woke up as much as she could and mumbled an "mmm hmm."

"I don't think we're like Disney's Pocahontas, Leah. I think we're more like the song…Dueling Banjos. You heard it?"

She frowned and adjusted the leaves on her nose. "No?"

He hummed a few bars of a melody until she gave short bark of laughter. "Isn't that the song in that one weird Burt Reynolds horror movie where these city slickers end up in some mountain place with inbred hillbillies trying to…"

Jasper growled at her. "Yes, I suppose. But that's not the point. We're like that song. First one banjo plays a song, then the other hits back with another. They play faster and faster, trying to outdo each other, see? But eventually, the two come up with a melody using both of 'em. And it works out mighty fine."

Leah mumbled something even she didn't understand, took a long whiff of vanilla leaves, and drifted away. She might have told him that she didn't like banjos, or she might have called him a wannabe hillbilly. She wasn't sure what she had said, but now she was somewhere else, deep in a sleep without dreams. He sat motionless by her side, occasionally looking to see if the leaves on her nose were still in place, occasionally stretching out an arm into the shafts of light piercing through the cover of the trees.

And that was how Alice found them.

_Endnote: One chapter left. It'll have some cameos from (some) of the Cullens and (some) of the pack. Reviews, as Clint Eastwood would say, make my day._


	9. Coda

_Author's note: I'll give you the bad news first. This is the end, folks. I don't have time to keep writing after this, so I'll probably go back to doing what I do best: reading. Thanks for all your support! You made writing my first story that much less scary, and your reviews have made me smile. Special thanks to dyingimmortal, and luck to her on her future projects!_

_Good news: I couldn't help but play with Alice a bit more than I'd previously planned. So the end? It's two chapters long. ;) _

If you had told the old Leah that she'd be walking through a forest one sunny afternoon in the company of not one but two vampires, she would have most likely left you with either tears in your eyes or a black eye. The Leah of this particular afternoon, however, found herself doing just that.

She'd woken up to the little psychic freak daintily removing the leaves off her nose with an insanely cheery smile. The sudden onslaught of chemical vampire aroma woke Leah up, and she never thought of herself as a "morning" person. Leah had screamed an embarrassingly girly scream and had leapt to her feet, shaking and growling. Before she could realize how he'd done it, Jasper had jumped in front of her, his body completely tense. His weird little love, shielded behind Jasper's back, managed to squeeze past him and give him a dirty look. "Jazz," she'd said, "will you ever learn that I'm perfectly able to take care of myself?" Jasper had mumbled that… Alice… couldn't possibly "see" if Leah was dangerous or not, and Alice had responded by sticking her tongue out at her husband. Jasper had turned, ever so slowly, and given Leah a smile that smacked very strongly of utter mortification. Leah had been totally weirded out by the entire thing.

Now she was walking beside them towards the one place she never thought she'd ever go unless on duty…the crypt. Back by the smooth tree, Alice had leaned forward with such a sweet expression that Leah didn't shrink away. She'd (carefully) moved a lock of Leah's hair away from her face without touching Leah's skin or reacting to Leah's death glare, and she'd said "Leah, baby, you look a mess. At least let us help you clean up before you go home." Leah had continued to grumble under her breath, but Jasper had given her a huge smile and had looked down at his wife fondly. Though she didn't want to admit it, Leah had been aching to clean the runny mascara off her face for quite some time. Somehow Alice had known that Leah was going to go home without being able to psychically be sure of it. And like it or not, little midget of a vampire or not, Alice had called her "baby" just the way Leah's mother said it. So for some reason she now couldn't understand, Leah had said she'd come with them…just to wash her face.

They were walking silently. At least, she and Jasper was walking silently. Leah was horrified to see that Alice was alternating between taking graceful little steps and skipping. Alice was holding Jasper's hand the entire time, giving Leah the overall impression of a big brother taking his hyperactive little sister to a playground. The effect was slightly disturbing to Leah, who was trying not to think of what made them a romantic couple rather than brother-sisterly. But then, as surreptitiously as possible, Leah took a good long look at their joined hands and changed her mind.

Alice's hand was, at most, half the size of Jasper's. Her fingers were curled tightly around his thumb as a baby girl would hold her parent's hand. Jasper's hand was completely covering Alice's. But on closer inspection, Leah saw that their fingers, surprisingly enough, were somehow intertwined. Every now and then Alice's fingers would tighten on Jasper's thumb, and his fingers would touch the quiet pulse point at her wrist. They were connected in a way so complex it became oddly simple. It was beautiful, and it made Leah feel more alone than ever.

Leah's sudden pang of pain must have gotten to Jasper, because he stopped abruptly and looked her way. Alice peeked at her from Jasper's side, and Leah kept walking… and ran into her second tree in the last twenty-four hours.

Sitting on her rear in front of a spruce and feeling dazed, Leah barely registered Alice kneeling next to her. Her head hurt something awful, and she was sure that this hit had left a mark. She didn't hear what Alice said and didn't understand why Alice's eyes looked slightly darker than they had before until she touched her right leg, just under her knee, and felt something wet. The stinging and the small splotch of red on her finger didn't seem like much to Leah until she thought of her present company. Alice was looking slightly pained, but was trying to help her up. Jasper, on the other hand…

He had moved backward, his hands balled into fists at his sides. His eyes were wide, his pupils dilated, and one side of his upper lip was curling upwards. On his unnaturally beautiful face, the effect was not a pleasing one. Leah didn't think he'd hurt her, especially with Alice by her side, but she didn't like the look on Jasper's face at all.

As Leah carefully got up from the ground, legs bent should she need to phase and take off at a sprint, Alice floated her way over to Jasper like a dandelion on the wind. She wrapped one hand behind his back and put one small hand on the center of his chest. If Leah weren't afraid to look away due to her own safety, she would have turned away to give them their privacy. The case being as it was, she watched Alice and Jasper carefully.

"No, Jazz," Alice said softly. He looked down at her. "That's Leah," Alice said. "And I think you can feel she's worried right now. She's worried about you." He looked towards Leah, his lip smoothing but still wide-eyed. Alice squeezed the front of his t-shirt into a ball and whispered something Leah couldn't hear. He looked down at her and blinked, and once again raised his head to look at Leah. This time, his gaze was piercing. Leah raised her chin and stood very still. She was sure the cut on her leg had healed. There were perks to being a sterile female werewolf---oops. Shape-shifter.

When Jasper moved towards her, Alice's hands still wrapped around his torso in a sort of embrace, Leah held her ground. He looked down at the drops of blood on her leg and then met Leah's narrowed eyes.

"Well then," he said. "You might just be the clumsiest wolf ever. I ought to give you a pack of complimentary, cherry-scented Band-Aids."

Leah's scream of rage was accompanied by a tinkling set of giggles from Alice, and somehow the unlikely threesome was back on their way. Leah felt the odd urge to compare them to the Wizard of Oz. Follow the damn yellow brick road. She knew something important had just happened, but she'd thought enough, slept little, and eaten even less. She'd moved on to thinking about what she'd say to her mother about her wedding shoes when Alice asked her a question. She turned and looked at the little female vampire.

"Huh?"

"I was just asking if Jazz behaved himself with you. It's frustrating not to be able to see it."

Leah frowned. "Yeah. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

Probably it was the tiredness taking control, or Leah would never have responded with "Well, he did try and make me horny this one time." Dear Leah, the lucid part of her mind told her. Insert. Foot. In. Mouth.

She looked at her two companions and was met with a sight she didn't expect. Jasper had straightened and was looking an odd combination of sheepish and proud. He looked eerily like Seth when Leah caught him doing something wrong. Alice looked absolutely devious. She yanked Jasper's shirt and, to Leah's horror, asked him what images he'd conjured up to "pull off that one." Whatever he said was too quick for Leah to hear, but she thought she heard the words "practical demonstration." Oh Lord. Horny vampires.

Uncomfortable due to Alice's presence, Leah kept quiet and watched the scenery as they walked. Every now and then she touched the fast-growing lump on her head and grimaced. Soon enough, the three of them found themselves in front of the river separating the forest from the crypt. Jasper winked at Leah, let go of Alice's hand, and crossed the river in one leap. Leah was about to wade through as carefully as she could when she felt a cold hand touch her elbow. "What," she growled, looking down at Alice. Just because she seemed decent didn't mean Leah had to automatically be nice to her. Damn, Leah. Next thing you know you'll get a room in Hotel Undead.

Alice didn't seem to be put off by her attitude at all. "I wanted to thank you," she said.

"For?"

"Whatever you said to him. I don't know what it was and don't want to know, but I do know it'll help." She smiled a truly happy smile that seemed almost too big for her face, gave Leah her own wink, and cartwheeled across the river. Show off, Leah thought, as she glumly waded to the other side. They were waiting, the sun hitting both of them. Sparkles galore. It looked like a scene straight out of some fantasy romance novel or chick flick, Leah mused angrily. Speaking of movies, though…She looked at Jasper and remembered something she wanted to ask. This would be awkward, especially with Alice watching.

Get it over with, Leah. "You. Me. Movie. In a _theater_. Sometime?" I Tarzan, you Jane, Leah thought. Sounding like an idiot always helps to make things even more awkward. Dammit.

Leah wasn't surprised to see him turn to Alice, but she was surprised to see Alice close her eyes and raise her index finger. "Two weeks from Thursday you disappear for at least three hours," she told him, and she turned and smiled that crazy big smile at Leah once more. She's not upset about my borrowing her husband at all, Leah mused. She trusted him. She trusted her. Leah blushed a little and looked at Jasper, who was looking slightly paler than usual. Can vampires get nauseated?

"You also disappear a week from tomorrow for about an hour and a half," Alice told him cheerily. "As Nessie and Jacob will be off to see Seattle, you might be thinking of what to do in a week too." Jasper still hadn't said anything. "We both know you'll be able to do it," Alice added, one hand waving in Leah's general direction. "The movie, I mean." Alice touched Jasper's thumb. "In terms of next week, though, why don't you meet for coffee or something?"

Yeah yeah, little vamp, Leah thought. You're winning me over. No need to try so hard. "You could bring a reading list, Cap'n," she told Jasper. "I could bring you one too."

Finally, Jasper decided to join the conversation revolving around him. "We'll see," he said. "But you should know that I don't drink…coffee."

This set Alice giggling again, though Leah didn't see why it was all that funny. Nonetheless, she was getting used to Alice, her giggles, and her expensive-looking outfits and shoes. Shoes. About those…

Leah's nose sent her a distress signal, so she looked down. Alice had come right up in front of Leah without her having noticed. Leah managed not to flinch, but she did notice that Alice looked like a kid in a candy store. Uh oh.

"What am _I_ doing this coming Monday, Leah?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Once again, Leah didn't think before she spoke. "Shopping?" She immediately smacked her head with her hand and chanced a look at Alice and Jasper. Alice was beaming, and Jasper's face clearly said "Leah, I am so sorry for you."

"What are we shopping _for?_" Alice prodded. "Don't you dare say it's a surprise. I don't like those. I have to _prepare._"

Leah groaned. "I need help buying shoes," she said. "For my mom," she continued quickly when she saw Alice's mouth open. "It's an emergency, and all my, um, female friends think I hate them." She paused, looking past Alice to Jasper. "I need to work on that."

Balancing on her toes and reaching her arm up as far as it would go, Alice tapped Leah's shoulder. "You will. But girlfriend, we are _so_ taking the Porsche out for this." Leah groaned once more as Jasper sent her an inadequate amount of calm. Alice winked. "And when we get to the house, I'll help you leave fast. I don't want to let Carlisle start talking about how all your problems might simply be because you've switched to an estrous cycle now."

The entire remaining walk to the mansion, Leah tried not to think about Dr. Fang ever being a gynecologist. Ever.

Sure enough, the Coldblooded Welcoming Committee had gathered on the porch of the house by the time they arrived. There was Mama Vamp, Dr. Acula, and…eww….Edward. Thankfully, Bella, Demon Spawn (Edward had given her a glare when Leah thought it), Blondie, and Thick-as-a-Brick were all keeping inside the house. Mama Vamp insisted Leah come inside to use a bathroom, and she insisted that all she needed was a wet towel and she'd be on her way. Alice suggested Leah pick up a pair of underwear as well, and Leah was torn between her desire to use her favorite seven words on Alice and her irrational need for the comfort of any form of lingerie. Edward was so kind as to inform them all that "Leah, after great internal turmoil and sojourns into the realm of profanity, is now calmly considering her options and appears to be deciding in favor of underwear." _I hate you, Mind-Raping Drama Queen, _she thought as loudly as she could. Edward chuckled.

Alice was dispatched inside the house to "borrow" a pair of underwear from Blondie, and Mama Vamp followed her to get the towel. She was left with Dr. Fang, Edward, and Jasper. She looked at Jasper pathetically. "Save me," she tried to say with her eyes. He just smiled at her. Shit.

Dr. Fang cleared his throat. _Please, oh please, don't start talking about the reproductive system of female wolves,_ Leah thought. "He's not quite there yet," Dear Ol' Eddie responded aloud. Jasper raised an eyebrow.

The Doc didn't notice any of this, or he didn't care. "I don't mean to pry, Miss Clearwater, but have you hit your head recently? You appear to have some signs of some very slight subgaleal hematoma," he asked. She blinked. "Er, you appear to have a degree of swelling on your head?" the Doc continued, giving her some sort of encouraging half nod. Leah was utterly mortified. Why had she ever come here? Edward was opening his mouth, and soon her affinity with trees would be no longer her secret. She looked down. _Come on, 'Ward, say it. You'll enjoy it. What's taking you so long?_

Looking up, she saw that Edward didn't look amused at all. No, he was looking at Jasper, who was obviously thinking something back at him. The Doc, on the other hand, was still looking at her head worriedly. She knew why Jake thought this guy wasn't all that bad. You couldn't look at him and think "cold blooded killer," especially when he was furrowing his brow and staring at your head with an expression way too old for his weirdly pretty face. Crazy, maybe. Just…not very vampiric. And like it or not, her head felt like it had a beehive for a hat. Humor him?

"I had a couple accidents earlier today," Leah conceded. "The cuts healed, but if you think you ought to look at my head…"

So there she was, standing on the front porch of a house full of vampires trying not to bite the hand off the one gingerly prodding her skull, thinking the nastiest thoughts she could think at another, and trying to figure out how she could send over an emotion of "intense gratitude" to yet another. Multitasking's a bitch.

Eventually, however, things wrapped up quite nicely. Mama Vamp brought _three_ towels, a mirror, and a bowl of water out to the porch. The Doc, meanwhile, kept a cold palm on her head (and it did feel good, Leah had to admit) and told Leah that she ought to ice that spot when she got home, wolf healing powers or not. Eddie picked up a call on his cell and left her the hell alone while she cleaned her face, trying not to breathe through her nose the entire time. Alice came out holding the skimpiest thong she'd ever seen, complete with original price tag, and told her that Blondie didn't think maroon was her color. Leah stared at the thong as Mama Vamp and Doc coughed and excused themselves. Mindcrawler was still on the phone.

"I'd run now if I were you," Alice said quietly. Jasper came forward and grinned. "I'd agree with that," he said. Then more quietly: "And thank you, too."

Things were too complicated for a tired Leah at that moment, her head humming and feeling the loss of the Doc's cool hand. She felt like a train wreck. Running home seemed welcome.

She looked down at the maroon thong. She'd rather go commando than wear it. Edweird, still on the phone, turned and smiled at her. He asked the person on the line to wait a moment, covered the phone's microphone with his hand, and looked Leah up and down. "Less of a train wreck than when you got here. Do what you're thinking of doing, and do it now. Your brother is waiting."

Leah never thought that damn Edward Cullen would convince her to do something, but she was pretty sure she'd left Kansas hours ago. Holding the thong on one finger, she carefully deposited it back into Alice's hands.

"So…I don't think I'll be needing this," Leah said. "Or this sweater, Cap'n." He watched her quietly.  
"Um…and tell your…mom…and the Doc- um thanks?" She nodded to both Alice and Jasper. "Next week, then."

Not one for goodbyes, Leah dove off the porch and into the bushes ringing the mansion before they said anything. To a chorus of guffaws and giggles, Leah shook inside the bush, phased, and leapt out of it as a giant gray wolf.

Bounding off into the distance, the wolf that was Leah gave a contented sigh. Now that's more like it.


	10. The Final Bow

As Leah Clearwater crossed the old boundary line into La Push, she still wasn't free.

She was tired as hell.

She felt drained and hungry.

She was definitely not yet over the human black hole that was Sam.

She still missed her dad, and she was worried about how her mother would react to her return.

But running at speeds humans would only dream of, pounding the earth so hard that little shocks of dirt flew up in her wake…

Not flying, but close.

_Leah! You're coming back!_ Seth's voice rang out in her head.

Yeah, squirt, I'm coming back.

_So fast? Are you ok?_ Now that was Embry. Probably out somewhere with Seth.

Hiding thoughts wasn't possible in wolf form, so Leah didn't try. Not ok, she thought, but on my way. Slowly.

_I missed you, Big Sis._

_He really was a mess without you._ Now Jake had joined the party. Cool. Just bring in all the Cullens and it could be a freak show convention. She and Jasper could be the stars. Uh oh. Three seconds 'till impact.

_You've been hanging out with the mad crazy killer leech?_ Embry's voice shrieked in her head.

_Jasper actually _talked _to you?_ Seth sounded curious and slightly jealous.

_Lee, you're one weird girl. I'd never find that guy comforting. _Jacob's thoughts sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

Yeah yeah, you big mutts. I "hung out" with the Cap'n. Feeling defiant, she went for it. I might be doing it again. She reveled in the mental silence until she thought about its cause.

_Um, Leah? You sure that…um…a rebound with a married guy is the best idea?_ Jacob was thinking.

_You should have said "dead guy." Rebound with a DEAD GUY._ Embry was quick to add.

Leah growled aloud. Morons. He's…a friend. That's it. And either go inside my house or stay the hell away, because I'm getting close to the house and I haven't got any clothes.

_And you want us to stay away?_

Shut it, Embry.

_Whatever you say, Leah. We'll give you privacy._ Whatever his other faults, Jake had matured a lot post Bella debacle. She felt the others leave her mind and she saw her house in the distance. Round the back to make the most of the trees, she thought.

_Mom's not angry, Sis. She's really, really worried… I was too. Thanks for coming home_. _I'll be there soon._ Seth was still off wolfing it up somewhere, and Leah appreciated it. He knew she needed to talk to their mother and was giving her space.

Baby Brother, you and I need to go buy us some pixie sticks. And as loudly as she could think it, she thought a phrase at Seth, a phrase she hoped to repeat more in the future: I love you.

She didn't hear his reply because she had started phasing back to human form, but she was sure she'd hear it soon enough. Hiding behind her mother's beat up old Honda, she thought of her options. Come in, naked as the day she was born and most likely covered in dirt and whatever else? She eyed the black tarp covering the Honda. Option two it is.

Wrapped up in scratchy black tarp, feeling and looking like an idiot, Leah padded up to the back door. Her reflection in the windows showed her that she was still a mess, but at least her face was clean. She took a deep breath, put her hand on the chipped chrome doorknob, and opened the door.

"Mama? I'm back."


End file.
